Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-08-15
THE BOOMING WEST.
OMAHA'S BOOM AND ITS REAL
ESTATE SPECULATION.
It's Wonderful Growth within the Past
Few Years-Something About Its Build
ings-A Chat with Senator Henderson
as to Nebraska.
Especial Correspondence

as to Nebraska.
Especial Correspondence
OMAHA, Aug s.
Omaha Is another baby giant among the
new cities of the west. Laid out in 1858, and
named after an Indian tribe, it contained, in
1865, 1000 people. Ten years later it had in
creased TO 10000. and In 1880 its population
was 10000. By 1885 it had again doubled.
and it now contains about 10000 souls. It.
business has grown with its numbers, and its
bank clearings last year made it the four
tenth business city OF tho United States and
showed an increase Of so per cent over the
clearings of 1885. Its builders rival those
employed by Aladdin, and it has an army OF
graders continually at work cutting down it,
hills and filling mp its valleys. These grader
live in tents outside OF the city, and you car
see camps OF them along nearly every line o
| railroad coming into the place. They have
already graded fftv-six miles of STREET anc
within three years Omaha has paid out NOR
than 81, 100000 for public improvements. II
has now twenty-five miles of street railway
in operation, and the rails are laid for two
lines of cable road. The town did about twc,
az much building in 1886 as in 1855, and be
tween January and May of this year it began
buildings which will aggregate cost o
s2,500,0O0 Building is going on all over The
city, and the real estate boom has been i'm
nense.
The whole of the surrounding country ba
been laid out in lots. Property has been sole
in every conceivable way, and even the tele
graph operators and tho typewriter girl
have engaged In the speculation. Many OF
these have made money, and was told of one
woman from Cellar Rapids, Ia, who, having
saved $500, had left school teaching and gone
60 Kansas City to engage in speculation. She
made some little money there and then came
to Omaha. She is now worth $4,000, and
says she is going to increase this to $500
and then quit. She is a p ucky Spectator
and though her deals are small, she continue.
to make. During the real estate craze every
one talked real estate in Omaha. You woulu
hear it in the dry goods stores among the
clerks, and | am told that this was the staple
conversation even at the tables OF the twenty
five cent hash houses Que man in Council
Bluffs went crazy over the rise on real estate.
He had 100 lots which ne sold at an advance
Of s25 per lot. The good fortune was more
than he could stand, and he is now in the
asylum. ~
The rise in real estate, however, has been
inside "a well as outside Of the city Business
property has jumped upwards, and prices of
this class OF property, considering the amount
OF business building going on, are still not too
high. A lot on the corner of Fifteenth ant
Douglas streets. A feet wide ana 1872 feet
deep, sold a short time ago for $S1 800, OF
almost 81 900 "A foot, and a lot On the corner
OF Sixteenth and Farnham streets, one Of th
best corners in the city, sold for 81, 900 This
lot was 30xl30 feet III size, and it was bought
fifteen years ago for S. 500. A thousand dol
lars a foot is a common price in the best
parts OF the city, and there is a good deal O
property worth 81 500 and more o foot front
The buildings being put up show that business
men have confidence in the continued growth
If Omaha. and the town is now building on
'ity basis. There are now from fifteen to
wenty business houses In course Of erection
which will cost from $3.50 600 to $500, 900 each.
~
Senator Paddock, the man who is to take
Van W yck's place at Washington, owns n
Inc seven story building here which will rent
Tor from 81 900 to 80 900 a year. and Senator
Henderson owns a nice property in the fash
ionable part of the city upon which he pro
noses to soon erect a residence. Senator
Henderson is one of the brightest of the
young public men of the west. Coming from
Ohio originally, he has made both reputation
ami money in Nebraska, and he has unlimited
confidence in the future of Omaha. In q
chat with him upon the subject | asked him
whether he thought its prosperity would last.
he replied: II am sure of it. Omaha will
be one of the greatest cities of the west. Its
growth has been well founded, and a look at
its history shows this to be so.
"Ihe first settlement at Omaha was made in
1853. For several years it seemed to be of
but little account In fact the town appeared
10 be important only because it was across
The river from Council Bluffs. It was not
then supposed that the country between the
Missouri river and the Rocky mountains was
worth anything for agricultural purposes.
Most of it was known as the Great American
Desert. The commercial crisis of 1857 almost
"xt;nSuished the little settlement Of Omaha.
,ut 1t seems to have had wonderful power O.
recoil from disaster, aud the census of 1866
shows that it had nearly 2,U00 population
The building of the Union Pacific railway
within the decade folowir.; 1860 gave the
city material increase, SO that i'll 1870 it has
10000 population. During the next ten year,
it became railway center, having five grea
lines of railway connecting it directly with
Tue tuSl, anu lOuf BIedb lilies reaching OQ
into the west. The state which had popu-
lation o: less than 50, 600 in 1860. and in 1900
less than Ia, 000 has increased so that in 1886
it nul, bered nearly half million, ana
Omaha, keeping pace with the growth Of the
state, had nearly 81 900 population in 1880.
The state census of 1885, which WINS very
carefully taken, gives the state of :;.braska
about 10000 and Omaha about IS, 900.
During the last two years it is estimated
that between twelve and fifteen thousand
people have permanently settled in Omaha
each year, so that its present popula ion i,
between $4,000 and 100, t,G. and the state ha,
unquestionally at this time a population o.
one million"
"Nhat is the reason for this great in.
creased"
"Ih;s phenomenal gro tn replied Senate,
Henderson, may he mainly attributed t.
the fact that the 70, 900 square miles of area in
Nebraska contained the largest proportionate
amount of rsl agricultural lands of any
state in the Union Its fertility is won
derful, and the ease with which the farmer
can raise the products of the soil is one
of the inducements to the large immigration
Another great advantage has been the chPap.